Natural cults in Altay (Altai), Tuva (Tyva) and Khakass epics

Cults are defined as mythical and religious belief patterns that are deemed to hold the mission of mediating the creator-human relationship, are considered sublime and sacred, are based on an archaic background, and are brought to life by various rites and rituals. Cults under the umbrella of natural cults such as water, tree, soil, mountain, and stone cults had revered and respected entities of worship in the forms of holy beings envisioned to be living as well as holy sites that served as sources of life. These beings were thought to be intermediaries for God, being able to benefit from the extraordinariness and authority it embodied. The veneration of the Sky God (Tengri), the cult of ancestors, and the cult of nature establish the cornerstone of the ancient Turks' religious sentiments. Alongside these religious sentiments, the traditional belief and thought system held that all animate and inanimate objects have souls, which served as the basis of nature cults. According to this belief, natural elements –trees, water, stone, fire, rain, et cetera– have spiritual guardians and holy patrons. These spirits, known as proprietors in the Turkish belief system, retain divine forces and are the protectors or owners of entities and natural elements. The elements in nature (trees, water, mountain, etc.) believed to have proprietors on earth are also cult objects. Therefore, natural cults unveil human belief and thought patterns in addition to revealing how they perceive nature, their lifestyles, how they practice their religion, and how this reflects upon their lives. Epics, sources among the most vital origins of our history depicting diverse aspects such as the creation of the universe and humanity, the founding of nations, the collective consciousness of the society in which they live, and their beliefs and cultural values, were chosen as this study's primary sources. The study specifically focused on epics in Altay, Tuva, and Khakass regions. The key rationale for significatively defining the Altay, Tuva, and Khakass regions as study areas was due to their extensive and rich oral epic corpus in terms of oral culture and the resemblances in theme, shape, style, belief systems, mythical components, and cultural features among the Altay, Tuva, and Khakass epics. This study designated the identified nature cults according to their attributes, traits, purposes, and functions via assessing the epics of the Altay, Tuva, and Khakass Turks and evaluated them under the headings by subjecting each epic in question to the classification process separately within themselves. Keywords: Tree cult, mountain cult, cult, water cult, stone cult, soil cult.